There's a difference in the texture of the food, or at least a perceived difference.

Does Thai food taste *better* with chopsticks?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: --Kate,

Hey Kate,

I learned to use chop sticks from my best friend when we were in high school. Her mom was Chinese. I loved using them with her family--they all did, including her dad who was Anglo. But then when I used them out with other non-asian people, it drew attention to me, which I wasn't keen on at the time.

I showed my daughter how to use them when she asked about it, and she seems to like the idea of using them, because they are a bit of an adventure I think--like a game of imagination--yes that does make the food taste better.

eley

A Korean woman in a makgeolli house in Seoul taught me how to use chop sticks decades ago. Chop sticks only make food taste different if you don't wash them.

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Originally posted by Sawdust:
A Korean woman in a makgeolli house in Seoul taught me how to use chop sticks decades ago. Chop sticks only make food taste different if you don't wash them.

I assume you mean the plastic types. If your waiter gives them to you broken apart, ask for new ones. I learned a couple of other secrets from Toa Yuen in Corvallis...

Secret ingredient in egg rolls is peanut butter, makes the stuff stick together easier.

But you gotta use the real bamboo chopsticks, the pine ones are disgusting.

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--like a game of imagination--yes that does make the food taste better.

Also, though, and I think Gnarly's bamboo recommendation demonstrates this: something tactile is involved. Maybe it's not exactly taste, but it enhances taste.

I watched a man yesterday at the interfaith dialogue group I went to, eat his lunch with a set of metal chop sticks. He looked elegant doing so. I wonder if his food tasted different.

I learned on the throw away pine kind, but we cleaned them by rubbing them togather, to make sure there were no splinters. I still tend to think the enhanced taste has to do with the feel of the custom of using them and the sense of tradition that many of us crave in this society.

eley

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something tactile is involved.

Yes, cramped fingers.

In my opinion they are the best way to eat noodles... especially if you like being the center of attention.

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Originally posted by ric:

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something tactile is involved.

Yes, cramped fingers.

In my opinion they are the best way to eat noodles... especially if you like being the center of attention.

But what if, at the time I asked the questions, I was eating leftover Thai food, with chopsticks, in a house that was empty except for me, one dog, and one cat, and what if I found the fork tinny and unappetizing, but the chopsticks blended into the food and made it the focal point, rather than the tines of the fork, and what if texture makes a whole lot of difference, and the intrusion or extrusion of an eating utensil interferes with the full ambiance, the flavor, of that warmed-in-the-microwave little bit of whatever that was, and what if we all tried eating with chop sticks, home alone, and we could then take the taste test...

I would also add that chopstick users are less likely to suffer from gum disease and toxic metal poisioning.

You can get metal poisoning from spoons and forks?
Gum disease as well??

Thats something I did not know.
Any good studies on the topic?

Maybe not nowadays, but in the past all kinds of toxic metals ended up in tableware, especially through electroplating. Stainless steel has pretty much put an end to that problem. And forks were notorious for being unclean what with the food that sticks between the tines, especially old time thick forks that gave people trench mouth. Thin modern stainless steel forks are much more sanitary. So yeah, it's a case of low technology being superior.

Also, Chinese people tend to eat slower, while westerners shovel great gobfuls on their mouth. Surely this is why the spoon and fork were invented.

And don't get me started on bowel health...

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You have to pick up a flavour at a time with chopsticks, whereas with a fork you tend to heap all you can onto it and loose the individual flavours 'in the crowd of tastes'.

The following Researcher also prefers eating Chinese using the 'ladylike' method:

Eating with chopsticks in the 'ladylike' way is better for you. It takes much longer to eat your food and you notice when you start to feel full and stop eating.

The second way to eat with chopsticks is the 'peasant' way. The 'peasant' way is where you hold your bowl very close to your mouth and shovel the food in.

Does Using Chopsticks Make Chinese Food Taste Better?

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Chop sticks only make food taste different if you don't wash them.

I wouldn't eat with a pair of wooden chopsticks that had alrady been used, even if they were washed.

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But you gotta use the real bamboo chopsticks, the pine ones are disgusting.

I have probably used both, but it makes no difference to me as long as the sticks have never been used before, thus the "throwaway kind" are the kind for me.

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I would also add that chopstick users are less likely to suffer from gum disease and toxic metal poisioning.

All wood has an anti-bacterial quality about it, some more than others, such as teak,



link

which is used on boats, because of its huge anti-bacterial factor. If you don't have a sanitizing dishwasher and don't want to go through the expense of the throw-away kind, then I would recommend the wooden ones, vs plastic or metal.

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I watched a man yesterday at the interfaith dialogue group I went to, eat his lunch with a set of metal chop sticks.

Hopefully he has a sanitizing dishwasher, but I imagine they aren't as good at grabbing slippery noodles.

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Originally posted by bill king:

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metal chop sticks.

I imagine they aren't as good at grabbing slippery noodles.

They would have to be knurled chopsticks.

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They would have to be knurled chopsticks.

Yeah, they may hang on to the noodle better, but I get shivers just thinking about what it would be like as that knurled surface slides across my tooth enamel!